New Lords Committee To Take On Growing Housing Demand

New Built Environment Lords Committee will look at the government’s housing target, the impact of reforms to the planning system and how barriers to meeting housing demand can be overcome. The House of Lords has created a new select committee to look at the built environment. We have been appointed to look at housing, planning, transport and infrastructure. The built environment shapes all our lives:  how and where we all live, how we get to work and travel for leisure, the health and sustainability of our communities, and how we live in our older age and protect the most vulnerable in society. Read more on the Politics Home website.

New Lords committee to take on growing housing demand (politicshome.com)

Removing Brexit Uncertainty Won’t Resolve Housing Market Issues

The BSA’s quarterly Property Tracker survey reveals that house prices are of greater importance than Brexit when it comes to housing market sentiment. Respondents who disagreed that ‘now is a good time to buy’ were asked what would change their mind: over a third (34%) said a correction in house prices. Comparatively, 27% said ‘the UK reaching an agreement with the EU’ would make them more positive, and just 11% said a ‘no deal’ scenario would make them more positive. Read more on the Politics Home website.

https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/economy/economic-growth/opinion/building-societies-association/104524/removing-brexit

Housing A Pawn In Tory Brexit Leadership Scrap

Former Housing Minister Dominic Raab has called for “radical” housing reforms in an attempt to help renters get on the housing ladder and increase the rate of home building. Attacking the Conservative failure to stand up to developers and ensure the construction of enough homes to tackle the housing shortage, Raab advocated a new Help to Buy scheme that would exempt landlords from capital gains tax when they sell their property to existing tenants. The leadership hopeful also identified the following solutions:

·         More government land to be released, with councils given more power to sell sites to smaller developers 

·         Fewer impositions on councils who fail to get enough homes built

·         Scrapping stamp duty on homes worth less than £500,000

Read more on the Politics Home website.

https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/economy/construction-industry/press-release/national-federation-builders/103251/housing-pawn

Labour Anger At £90k Rebrand For Government's Affordable Housing Quango

Homes England handed an £87,000 rebrand contract to design agency Lloyd Northover give it a “new tone of voice” and produce business cards, among other things. But Shadow Housing Secretary John Healey pointed out the dismal Government record on cheap housing as he took aim at the contract. “The Government has funded just 307 new homes for social rent in the last six months,” he told PoliticsHome. Rather than splashing public cash on PR, Conservative ministers should tell Homes England to put every spare penny towards building new, desperately-needed affordable homes.” Read more on the Politics Home website.

https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/houses/news/100307/excl-labour-anger-%C2%A390k-rebrand-governments-affordable-housing-quango

Ministers Accused Of 'Insulting' Failure To Publish Post-Grenfell Housing Plan

MPs from across the political spectrum have teamed up to accuse ministers of breaking a key promise made to social housing tenants in the wake of the Grenfell tower fire. Housing Secretary James Brokenshire said: "It is essential that people living in buildings like Grenfell Tower are not only safe but they feel the state understands their lives and works for them. Which is why we’ll be publishing a Social Housing Green Paper by recess." But with the Parliamentary recess now underway, the Government has yet to publish the plan as promised. The lack of action has prompted fury from a cross-party coalition of almost 40 MPs, who have now written to Mr Brokenshire to demand answers. Read more on Politics Home.

https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/communities/housing/news/97306/excl-ministers-accused-insulting-failure-publish-post

Government’s Flagship New Homes Pledge Branded 'Meaningless'

According to the Housing Secretary, the latest draft of the National Planning Policy Framework – which sets out how the Government will deliver new homes across the country – does not feature the goal. In an answer to a parliamentary question, James Brokenshire said: “The draft revised National Planning Policy Framework does not set a national home building target. It proposes the introduction of a standard method for assessing housing need that would be used locally as the starting point for each area’s plan-making.” But Shadow Housing Secretary John Healey blasted the omission saying: “After eight years of failure, the Conservatives have no plan to fix the housing crisis. Ministers’ housebuilding targets are meaningless if they don’t even feature in the Government’s national housing plan." Read more on the Politics Home website.

https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/communities/housing/news/96171/excl-governments-flagship-new-homes-pledge-branded

Housing Benefit Bill Set To Double As More OAPs Rent Through Retirement

Taxpayers face a multi-billion pound bill as they try to keep a roof over the heads of more middle-aged and older renters priced out of the property market. Soaring house prices have left many middle-aged renters without a chance of getting on the property ladder. The proportion of people in the 35-44 age group privately renting has doubled from 13 per cent in 2007 to 26 per cent last year, the Office for National Statistics said. The percentage of 45 to 54-year-olds renting rose from 8 per cent to 14 per cent over the same period. Failure to tackle the housing crisis will push the housing benefit bill up to £16bn by 2060. Read more on the Politics Home website.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Hk1ifRx8J7kJ:https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/communities/housing/news/95121/housing-benefit-bill-set-double-taxpayers-more-oaps-rent+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&safe=vss

Housing Benefit Cuts Could See Claimants £500 A Year Worse Off

Cuts to housing benefit – now seen as the Treasury’s preferred alternative to cutting tax credits – are likely to damage similar groups of in-work poor claimants by depriving them of more than £500 a year, suggests fresh research by the Institute for Public Policy Research. The research indicates if the chancellor makes all housing benefit claimants pay the first 10% of their rent from their own funds, he will save around £2.4bn a year, but hit 4.8 million households. The housing benefit budget has risen in recent years and now costs the Treasury £25bn. Their analysis comes as George Osborne has been forced by a Conservative backbench rebellion to backtrack on his plan to cut tax credits. Cutting housing benefit entitlement could help make up the shortfall. Read more on the Politics Home website.

Osborne Abandons Cuts To Universal Credit After IDS Quit Threat

Mr Osborne will now seek deeper cuts in housing benefits as he aims to meet his pre-election pledge of cutting the welfare budget by £12bn. Mr Duncan Smith allegedly threatened to resign as Work and Pensions Secretary if the savings were found through cuts to his Universal Credit system. Claimants currently lose 65p in every extra pound they earn as benefits are withdrawn. Following £2bn cuts to Universal Credit, claimants would have lost 75p in every extra pound. Mr Duncan Smith is reportedly working on a shared ownership scheme in a bid to drive down the housing benefit bill, where tenants living in local authority housing for three years would be granted 70% of the equity in the home and rent the remaining 30%. Read more on the Politics Home website.

Boris Johnson: Right-To-Buy Plan Would Mean 'Massive Subsidies'

David Cameron has announced extending the Right to Buy to housing association tenants as a key plank of the Conservatives' manifesto. But PoliticsHome has discovered that last month the Mayor of London told London Assembly members that such a policy would mean his administration being forced to make up any funding shortfall. "It would be potentially extremely costly to this body," he told Labour AM Tom Copley.  "We would have to make up the difference.  Housing associations are private bodies, as we all know.  It would involve massive subsidies.  We would need to get the funds to support that. However, at the moment, I want to stress that there is no such policy." Read more on the Politics Home website.

IDS Benefits Claim Attacked

Labour has branded the Government's record on unemployment "a totem of incompetence", as Iain Duncan Smith claims that one million people capable of working are stuck on benefits.  The Work and Pensions Secretary is to release new figures showing the number of long-term claimants of unemployment and other benefit payments.  Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Liam Byrne derided what he called "Iain Duncan Smith’s new strategy for the long-term unemployed: blame the unemployed".  Mr Byrne said: "In a sea of failure this government’s record on long-term unemployment is a totem of incompetence. The number of people out for work for more than two years has doubled in the last year, now a staggering four times higher than in 2010."  Read more on the Politics Home website.

Adoption Fears over Bedroom Tax

The Government's controversial 'bedroom tax' could have a “devastating” effect on adoption.  Under the proposals, children of the same gender will be expected to share a bedroom, but Government guidelines on adoption recommend children be placed in households where they will have their own bedroom - leading to fears potential adoptions will be blocked. Shadow Children’s Minister Lisa Nandy said ministers had failed to consider the impact of the proposals on the adoption process.  "It is unbelievable that a Government that is trying to increase the numbers of adopters hasn’t considered the potentially devastating impact of the bedroom tax on the most vulnerable children," she said.  Read more on the Politics Home website.